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The Justice Department's antitrust division has opened an inquiry into how
ESPN acquires and uses its college football and basketball programming, two
television industry executives said.

A lawyer for the antitrust division has begun to contact the athletic
conferences.

ESPN and Justice Department officials declined to comment.

The investigation, the executives said, may be examining the practice of
warehousing, under which ESPN televises only a small portion of the games it
has acquired from a conference, then restricts the conference from making
deals with any other television entities.

They said the inquiry could also focus on how ESPN uses football and
basketball as leverage with conferences, and how it schedules football games
at nontraditional times like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights
to give colleges national exposure for recruiting.

College football and basketball is omnipresent now on numerous networks. But
by any measure, ESPN is the biggest force. It carries several hundred games
on ESPN and ESPN2, through syndication and pay-per-view. ABC Sports, its
corporate sibling under the Walt Disney Company, carries a full schedule and
the major bowl games.

For decades, college football was run by the NCAA. But 20 years ago, the
Supreme Court ended the NCAA's control over the market for televising
college football by regulating the number of appearances teams could make
and how much it can charge the networks.

The court ruled that the NCAA had in effect become a "classic cartel." The
7-2 decision was the result of an antitrust suit filed by the University of
Georgia and the University of Oklahoma in 1981.

ESPN has the rights to numerous conferences, including the Atlantic Coast,
Big East, Big Ten and Southeastern in football and the Big East, Big 12, Big
Ten and ACC in basketball.

ESPN and ABC recently renewed their deal to carry ACC football for seven
years, at $260 million to $270 million, and to add a conference championship
game in 2005. ESPN is in arbitration with the Big East to determine what to
pay the conference because of the loss of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston
College to the ACC.

I've always hated the way they charge for their games in an all or nothing fashion and they buy up all the games and then just show me one I don't care about (Duke-Wake???) unless I buy the whole package. In my mind it's just bad business, but if this makes them re-think it then good for us!

This may not be good news for fans...precedence in Sports Antitrust has been established with such cases as the Minnesota Twins' case against baseball's contraction attempts. The courts ruled in favor of Minny based on the tradition based in the state and the overall well-being of the community. If the plaintiffs can prove that ESPN is hurting the game's tarditions by playing games on other days than the traditional Saturday...it may be trouble for ESPN. However, the conference contracts will be scrutinized in terms of wording and obligations to see if a monopolistic advantage is being gained by ESPN.

I'm no fan of ESPN....again, I'm no fan of ESPN.....there, feel better. But anyway, the one problem I have is that other networks want to be able to carry football, but don't want to put the work into making a good broadcast. Example: anyone watch the TBS games last year? Just what I want...Ron Theulan and Brian Bosworth calling a game or being in the studio. Garbage. The camera work quality was also not as good. So, if ESPN is the only network that wants to put the work into a good product, then I don't mind watching it predominantly on ESPN.

I like the games not played on Sat... gives me more nights to watch college football . Any network can sign a conference. If ESPN is paying the most then they should get the rights... it shouldn't matter if they are showing the games or not. If CBS wants the conference rights they can shell out big bucks...

ABC, NBC, ESPN all carry games (I don't think Fox sports has any although I could be wrong... I could have told you several months ago, but I currently don't recall)...

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